Exploring Sand and Silt

2nd grade has been exploring some of the smallest rock particles: sand and silt. They have been looking at properties of these rocks when they are dry and when they are wet.

It leaves some dust when it is moved around the plate.

The sand sounds like a maraca!

It feels dusty and bumpy.

What does it smell like?

When we added water to the sand,
bubbles came to the top and the water is changing color.

When I turned it over, the sand fell to the bottom
 and the water went to the top.

The sand is staying at the top!
And their is air stuck in between!

Shaking the vial as fast as he can!

The vial of sand and water was left for a week.  We made predictions about what it would look like.  Some thought the water would evaporate.  Others thought the sand would turn ever muddier. Very few predicted that the muddy water would be clear!

The sand settled at the bottom and a thin
layer of silt settled on top of the sand.

We poured the water out so we could touch the silt.

It was hard to touch the silt, but when we did, it felt so small!

1st Grade looks at "Critters" and Compares them to Mealworms!

We are nearing the end of our insect unit and have become quite good at observing and identifying insects!  We looked at harvester ants, stick insects, snails, pill bugs and hissing cockroaches.  We then thought, how are they the same as our mealworms and how are they different.

The dead ones are all buried in a pile.

This one is missing its front leg.

They have exoskeletons like the mealworms.

It's hard to find out what is the same with snails and mealworms!

The ants have 6 legs and so does my mealworm!

Can we hold them?  Please!?

We discovered that the walking sticks had babies!

The hissing cockroach likes to hide!  I can see the baby too!

Where?

Pre-K Hunts for Fossils

Pre-K have become paleontologists!  We looked closely at real fossils and noticed some that looked like shells and some that looked like plants.   

We love using science tools to look at the fossils...

It's important to draw and record our finds
just like real paleontologists!

The dinosaur bone puzzle is a little tricky!

We made our own fossil imprints in the
play dough.

On the dinosaur dig we found skulls and 
other fossils and then drew them in our fossil book!

So many dinosaurs!

Our Mealworms are Changing!

1st graders have been feeding and caring for their mealworms for such a long time!  They saw that their mealworm would shed its skin and grow which prompted them to wonder what does the mealworm look like when it gets older?

The mealworms turned into pupas!  Now we figured out that it will turn into something!  What could it turn into? Many of the classes thought a moth or a butterfly.  One student thought maybe a firefly!

This pupa is hatching right now!

A close up of a beetle emerging from a pupa.

The mealworm turns into a darkling beetle!

  

Kindergarten Looks at the Gorgeous Leaves of Fall!

Kindergarten is finishing up the tree unit by looking at leaves.  We noticed that different trees have different shaped leaves.  The color of the leaves are different, the edges are different, the size of the leaves is different and even the texture of the leaves are different!